Dylan on baseball

I haven't heard Bob Dylan's radio show yet. This week's show is definitely one I wish I had heard. Dylan devoted this week's show to baseball.

"If diamonds are a girl's best friend, why do so many girls get mad when you want to go to the ballpark?" Dylan says during this week's show. "You tell me."

Again, wisdom from Bob.

Baseball in Donoughmore

Off to Co. Cork this Saturday with the youth team. I haven't been down in that part of the country in a long time. Staying in Blarney, which is a few miles down the road.

If anyone knows of any internet cafes in Blarney or any other possible solution to my 'must get the Newshound done' problem, could you please let me know. I hate traveling without a good idea how I'm going to do the Newshound. I'm only going for a night, so Sunday morning is the issue.

Brasilia, Co. Offaly

I was thinking about all the nonsense over the government's planned "decentralisation" and you know what should be done? Move the whole government - lock, stock and barrel - to a new greenfield site. A new Washington, Canberra or Brasilia. Pick an underpopulated, not overly touristy area and build a great new capital city there. An exhausted bog would be ideal.

Think of the benefits. Dublin's housing shortage will be over in a hurry (although, on second thought, the value of my property would plummet). Those civil servants who are afraid that leaving Dublin will put them too far away from where the real decisions are made won't have to worry. The Taoiseach and everyone on down will be in "New Brasilia", Co. Offaly.

And, such a move will create a healthy distance between the job-creating, money-making, creative work force and the dead hand of government. I think it would be better for the wealth-creating sector to see the government as a rival, which it is, of course. Moving it to a new city will help crystallize that.

England Expects

Entertaining article about the England World Cup squad from today's NY Times. One sentence from the Times article sums up all the ridiculousness that's part and parcel of England in the World Cup.

Will Melanie Slade, the 17-year-old girlfriend of the 17-year-old forward Theo Walcott, crumble under the pressure of having her figure and her fashion sense dissected daily by the tabloids?

This kind of thing always amazes me. I mean, does anyone really care about Theo Walcott's girlfriend? Yet, the Times isn't exaggerating. I've seen this kid's girlfriend in the papers and on t.v.

Then there's this about the manager.

A seemingly inoffensive, even dull, Swede, Eriksson is known as much for his vigorous love life – his curious relationship with Nancy Dell'Olio, his indeterminately aged, perma-tanned, tight-outfit-wearing girlfriend, as well as his affairs with various other women, all of whom have been happy to discuss them publicly – as he is for the serene blandness of his public remarks and for his managing skills, or lack thereof.

I don't know all that much about the state of English soccer as compared with the other 31 nations competing, but my instincts tell me that the team is not really good enough to expect to win. They can hope to win, of course, and good luck to them. I'll be rooting for the US (unless I carry through with my boycott threat).

Fight at the funeral

Is it inappropriate to find this story amusing? I hope not because it's got me chuckling.

A family feud broke out into a fully-fledged fight at a funeral near Kilkenny yesterday.

At one stage, a female mourner was standing on a pew screaming obscenities while holding a Yorkshire terrier dog in her hands.

. . . Three altar boys looked on in silence, afraid about what was going to happen next.

The altar boys were obviously not from the same family as the deceased.

Still, it wasn't a total surprise when fisticuffs broke out, although maybe nobody figured it would happen in the church during the ceremony.

On Sunday night at her removal, up to 40 members of the Travelling community were involved in a fight at the funeral home.

Gardai wearing riot gear entered the home and arrested five men. Two were taken to hospital.

INTO uses the children they teach

The other day my children came home from school with a flyer from the INTO. It's easy to overreact to these sorts of things, but it's not right for the teachers' union to use the children they teach as a means for airing their grievances. I think the school should have said 'no'.

Anyway, the teachers want smaller classes. The flyer is a form letter that we're supposed to forward to the Minister for Education. "We support the INTO campaign for smaller classes – we do not want ourchildrenn crowded out!" For what it's worth, my daughter doesn't want her class of 30 to be reduced. She likes her classmates.

Well-known, but not well-liked

The front page of today's Irish Times includes an article about the new schedule on RTE Radio 1. {Talk about your slow news day.} The headline says, "RTɉ cuts well-known shows in major revamp of schedules".

I don't know what the listenership figures are, but I'm guessing that these "well-known shows" were obviously not so well-liked by the public. I mean, if those shows were doing well RTE would hardly be cutting them, would they? No more Rattlebag? My life is over.

When can I get a show and be Ireland's answer to Rush Limbaugh?

I know more than my kids

Just stumbled onto a blurb about last night's American Idol final. I now know who won and they don't. They're just not with it. It won't be on t.v. here until this weekend. I think. I'm not really sure and I don't really care.

Sex & drugs in my old school

Shocking, just shocking. Supposedly 92% of seniors in my old high school claim that they can acquire marijuana easily. I would imagine that represents a slight fall-off from when I was in high school. Somedays the clouds & smell from those who were smoking in school seemed to be everywhere.

As for the sex, 60% of seniors indicated that they'd had sex. I can't comment on how this might compare to my day because, well, I knew nothing about it. In later life I found out some things about what happened during my years in high school, but the only conclusion I was able to draw was that I was really out of it in high school. I knew everything there was to know about Mookie Wilson, but when it came to girls I was utterly clueless.

I actually don't think these things should be treated lightly, but I also don't know that it's really newsworthy that such things go on. And, this was a survey conducted by a member of the student body, which probably means that the survey may not have been administered in an ideal fashion.

So disappointing

I really loved the idea of little people – a different species – living on an island in today's Indonesia up to as recently as 20,000 years ago. Now some American scientists say that it's more likely that they were actually Homo sapiens with microcephaly. Spoilsports.

Not leaving in droves

According to a recent study, American Catholics have not abandoned the Church after the sex abuse scandals. In fact, the only truly measurable change in behavior and attitude is that Catholics are less likely to respond to a diocesan appeal than they were three years ago. I have to say, I'm surprised by these results.

I wonder what a similar study would show here. It's obvious churches aren't as full today, but that process of falling attendance had started before the Bishop Casey and Brendan Smith scandals in the early 90s. Still, I can't imagine that the seemingly endless horrors stories and the inadequacy of the Bishops' response can't have had a big effect on church attendance.

World Cup fever

Soccer's not that big in Australia and Kylie Ladd's husband is more of a cricket fan than soccer fan, but nonetheless she's seen it all before. She knows he'll be watching come June 9.

My husband is a cricket tragic, the sort that ogles Wisdens as other men ogle Penthouse; the type that was teary for days after we lost the Ashes.

Sports fans are fickle, though. I should have seen it coming after I left him alone for a few hours during the Commonwealth Games and came home to find him watching netball. He swore it was only because the girls had great legs, but then made the fatal mistake of knowing the score.

Caught out, he pleaded for my understanding. There was no cricket to be had anywhere. There was still a ball involved.

The whole column is good.

Right Nation

Sure takes me a long time to finish a book sometimes. I get sidetracked, mostly when the pile of newspapers tops 3' in height. Anyway, I thought Right Nation was excellent – thorough, well-structured and easy-to read. Essentially the book is a summary of the various elements of the American conservative movement and why it's been so successful.

A lot of what the book offered was familiar, but even that was fine due to the manner that it was presented by the two British journalists (John Micklethwait & Adrian Woolridge). Any "right"-thinking American living in Britain or Ireland would devour this book. And, it should be required reading for those who work in the media here – might help cut down on the amount of misrepresentation of American Republicans/conservatives that are such a regular feature of news reports.

I'm sure anyone with an interest in American politics would enjoy the book. (Or at least, find it interesting. I would imagine that if you think George W. Bush is the devil incarnate you might not enjoy reading about the movement that elected him twice.) And, conservatives in the US would find it useful too, particularly where the authors note the differences between American and British or European conservativism.

Read all about it - illegal aliens at Gaelic Park

Unbelievable front page story today in the Irish Times. Someone in the GAA has really blown it - BIG TIME. The Irish Times isn't the only place to learn that the New York hurling team had a big win over the weekend, but might have trouble playing if the next match is in Ireland. This story is in every paper. And why can't the New York team travel? Because the team is, apparently, partly made up of illegal aliens.

The Irish Times reports that the GAA is considering holding the next round match in New York so that New York's players don't have to leave the US.

Well, duhh, hello! If I was on that team and an illegal alien I'd probably give the big June 4th game a miss and more than likely not show up at Gaelic Park for a long time. All this coverage is hardly likely to escape INS officials, is it? And, at a time when the immigration issue in the US has never been hotter. Only a dolt would have shouted out that we have illegals on the team and can't travel.

Why people died in New Orleans

This is from today's New York Times.

The design and construction of the New Orleans hurricane protection system, a project spanning more than 40 years that remains incomplete, was inadequate to protect hundreds of thousands of people in an urban setting.

. . . "People didn't die because the storm was bigger than the system could handle, and people didn't die because the levees were overtopped," said Raymond B. Seed, a professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and the chief author of the report, in a weekend briefing for reporters here.

"People died because mistakes were made," he said, "and because safety was exchanged for efficiency and reduced cost."

This is not the final word on the subject. The Army Corps of Engineers has its own report coming out soon. Still, this is damning and chilling. 40 years of ineptitude.

I should have watched the Eurovision

I heard the children talking about the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday morning, but it hadn't occurred to me that there would be a conflict. However, just after 6pm when they heard me announce that the Mets were playing the despised cross-town rivals and it was on t.v., they knew. I felt a small pang of guilt as I uttered, "The game should be over around 9 or so", although I knew the song contest started at 8. Regardless, I settled in as they shuffled off.

Picture the scene. I'm in my big, comfortable chair. I have a beverage at my right hand and the remote at my left for enhancing the volume at key moments. I couldn't have been better positioned to enjoy a baseball game on a Saturday evening. And, as I sat there watching the start of the game I thought about how great it was to be able to see this here. I was blissful.

Ninety minutes or so later and I couldn't have been more relaxed. The Mets' superstar pitcher, Pedro Martinez, was displaying all his artistic skills dismissing Yankee after Yankee. By the time they had completed 8 of the required 9 innings I had probably never been more confident of a victory in such a game.

Well, there's a reason why Yogi said of baseball, "it ain't over til it's over". Twenty-five minutes later and I'm raging. I'm yelling at the t.v., at the Mets, at the manager and relief pitcher in particular and at my kids for acting like children. I'm pretty sure there were birds chirping outside my window at 8pm, but there was just an ugly silence by 9.

The Mets blew a 4 run lead in the last frame and lost it later in the 11th. When I eventually calmed down into a dull moan/anger I invited the family back in to watch the last 45 minutes of the song contest. The first thing I saw was the eventual winners, who looked like the 4 (well, 5 really) horsemen of the apocalypse. I knew then that this was a sign that I had been punished for not letting the children watch this blasted contest. It was all my fault.

UPDATE Mon 9:45: Some measure of redemption last night with a 4-3 win in the "rubber game". Still, I'm nothing if not greedy. The Mets should have had all three.

Twenty years ago today

I only just realized that it was exactly 20 years ago - May 18, 1986 - that I graduated from college. Can't be that long ago. I demand a recount. (And, no, those are not hanging chads. Shut up.)

Sanctuary! Sanctuary!

I've heard and read many references to the old right of sanctuary in a church with regards to the Afghan refugees. (You can see some of this in the comments below.)

I don't know too much about this, to be honest, other than what I learned from Quasimodo in the The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I'm certainly no expert on church law, etc.

I've tried to find something about sanctuary, but I haven't had much luck. I did find this, which was published by the Church in 1912.

The ecclesiastical right of sanctuary ceased in England at the Reformation, but was after that date allowed to certain non-ecclesiastical precincts, which afforded shelter chiefly to debtors. The houses of ambassadors were also sometimes quasi-sanctuaries. Whitefriars, London (also called Alsatia), was the last place of sanctuary used in England, but it was abolished by Act of Parliament in 1697. In other European countries the right of sanctuary ceased towards the end of the eighteenth century.

If this is accurate, then those refugees in St. Patrick's or those in Belgian churches are claiming a right that no longer exists. (I'm not sure they have claimed sanctuary in a church - it seems to be mostly their non-Muslim supporters who are referring to sanctuary.)

Skilled immigrants and assimilation

One more thing about Samuelson's article. He says that high-skilled immigrants assimilate more quickly than low-skilled immigrants. Is this true?

Samuelson refers to all sorts of economic data to make his case, but I don't think assimilation is necessarily related to earnings. It's more about your sense of who you are. In fact, I think a case could be made that low-skilled immigrants who are given a genuine opportunity to become full Americans will grab that chance more firmly than those who enter the country with high skills and/or college degrees.

I don't have any hard evidence either, but I'm not sold that it's as straight-forward as Samuelson claims. You only have to spend a short while on a European college campus to realize that most students who pass through will have been exposed to high levels of anti-Americanism. One can absorb an awful lot of that and still want to go to America to earn a high wage. I'm not sure, however, that they'd necessarily assimilate as willingly as someone who only wants a chance for his children to have a better life than he had.

Assimilation is the key

Robert J. Samuelson believes that the President missed the "true nature" of the immigration problem - that there are two "interconnected" issues.

On the one side will be older baby boomers demanding all their federal retirement benefits. On the other will be an expanding population of younger and poorer Hispanics -- immigrants, their children and grandchildren -- increasingly resentful of their rising taxes that subsidize often-wealthier and unrelated baby boomers.

My first reaction when I read that was, "Hey, I've seen something like that before. Oh yeah, I wrote it, but it was about France and its Muslim population".

Anyway, the problem for both the US & France boils down to assimilation. In what both Samuelson and I have written there is an assumption that the dominant immigrant group will not become full citizens and will not assimilate fully. If today's Hispanic immigrants produce a generation of American-born people who feel more Mexican (or Panamanian or Salvadoran or whatever) than American, then America has a big problem. This cannot be allowed to happen. All immigrants and their children must (a) choose to be American and (b) be allowed to be American. The same goes for France.

Right now, I think the United States is more likely to succeed in assimilating its immigrants than is France, but it's not an automatic 'yes' or 'no' in either case.